Caption: Locust. High-speed photograph of an unidentified locust (centre) leaping from a leaf. Also seen is a type of fly (lower left) caught in a spider's web. Locusts belong to the suborder Caelifera. They are a type of grasshopper with a two-phase life cycle. At low population density they are solitary insects with camouflaged colouration. When the population density rises above a certain critical threshold, the insects congregate, mate and lay millions of eggs in the ground. The offspring are different in shape, brightly coloured and gregarious. After several moults they acquire full wings and set off in a migratory swarm, decimating huge areas of vegetation.